


Tobaseru Tsubasa

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Series: Sora he Iku Tame no Tsubasa (The Wings that Exist to Take Me to the Sky) [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Injury, M/M, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-10 22:06:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4409543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It should hurt, feeling like he can’t find Hinata’s most important person when he knows his spiker so well, but every time Hinata joins him at an early morning practice the day after a failed date, Tobio feels something like gratitude in his chest instead. Because as soon as Hinata finds that special person, Tobio knows he’ll start coming in third place instead of second. Volleyball will always be first in Hinata’s heart--Tobio knows this--but to be second there, for now, is a beautiful and blessed treasure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tobaseru Tsubasa

**Author's Note:**

> There's some pretty graphic descriptions of an injury in this fic; more explanation can be found in the end notes if you would like them.
> 
> Many thanks to darling Epoxide who did a readthrough to soothe my worries. All remaining mistakes are my own.

A year comes and goes. Tobio searches and searches for the perfect person for Hinata to spend his life with, setting him up on countless dates, only six of which ever make it to a second date, and only one out of those making it to a third. Hinata seems to like most of the people Tobio finds well enough, even stays friends with a few of them, but when Tobio asks if there could ever be something more, Hinata’s face just grows wistful. “Not the way you’re thinking, Kageyama.”

It should hurt, feeling like he can’t find Hinata’s most important person when he knows his spiker so well, but every time Hinata joins him at an early morning practice the day after a failed date, Tobio feels something like gratitude in his chest instead. Because as soon as Hinata finds that special person, Tobio knows he’ll start coming in third place instead of second. Volleyball will always be first in Hinata’s heart--Tobio knows this--but to be second there, for now, is a beautiful and blessed treasure. For now, Tobio clings to that treasure jealously, even as he searches for someone to take his place.

They’re seniors now, and they follow in the footsteps of their senpai before them, working as hard as they can to keep up in their studies while also staying involved in club activities. It’s exhausting, and Hinata has become a near-constant in the Kageyama household on weeknights when he stays too late studying and Tobio’s mother doesn’t want to let him bike the rest of the way home in the full dark. Hinata’s mother doesn’t seem to mind, thanking Tobio’s mother profusely and inviting Tobio over every Sunday that they decide to study together. It’s. Well. It’s more than Tobio ever thought he’d get to have with Hinata this year, what with his personal quest to find Hinata someone to spend his life with, but he’ll take every scrap of his best friend that he can scrounge up for as long as he can.

The Spring High is a battle, just like it always is, even with their first place finish last year giving them a cushy seed. But they fight their way to the finals again and take out Shiratorizawa in four sets.

In the instant that Hinata scores their match point, Tobio thinks the light in his eyes could power the whole world.

Hinata lands a split second after his spike hits the ground, and he immediately takes off across the court, tackling Tobio to the ground.

“Nationals, Kageyama!” he shrieks, his voice loud and bright. “We’re going to Nationals again!”

Tobio chuckles, wrapping one arm around Hinata’s back and ruffling his hair with the other. “Yes, yes, but shouldn’t you show a little more composure, Captain?”

Hinata just laughs, burying himself deeper in Tobio’s arms. “That’s your job, Vice-Captain. I’m the fun one, remember?”

Tobio grins up at the team that has come to stand around them, all breathing heavily, but with matching grins on all of their faces. Then he smiles back down at Hinata, tightening his hold ever so slightly. “Yeah. Yeah, you are.”

\----

They train. It feels like it should be all-consuming, but with exams looming there’s only so much time they can devote to training.

And then, before Tobio’s realized it, it’s time for the tournament. They’re all suited up, standing on the court, and, for an instant, he can’t breathe. _Nationals_. It’s everything he’s been working for for the last three years. Longer, if he’s honest with himself. And to make it here not once but _twice_ …. It’s more than he thinks he deserves.

But then he looks down at Hinata, clearly just seconds away from his ritual bathroom dash, and he knows that this isn’t for him. It’s for their captain. For his best friend. For his sun and stars, the light of his life, and the person--

The person that hasn’t said a word about how Tobio hasn’t set him up on a date since their Spring High.

Tobio’s brain shorts out at that thought. He’d been so focused on volleyball and their grades that he’d forgotten his most important promise to Hinata. To get him his wings back.

He has a hand half outstretched to grab Hinata by the jersey and say-- _what? Say what?_ \--when Hinata dashes off to the bathroom.

Ikeda laughs, an affectionate sort of sound. “You’d think after three years he’d be used to it, wouldn’t you Kageyama-senpai?”

“Mm? Uh, yeah. Yeah, you would.”

Nakajima tilts his head to the side. “Is something wrong, Kageyama-senpai?”

Tobio shakes his head. That’s a thought for another day. “It’s nothing, Nakajima.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I am.”

\----

Five days. Five days of non-stop battles. Fighting for every ball they can handle and fighting fighting fighting to make it to the top. The first two days are round-robin format, and even though it isn’t single-elimination, they fight like it is. They win all four games and Karasuno makes it to the bracket play for the first time since the Little Giant stood on this stage. On the morning of the third day, they win their first game and watch the girls teams play in the afternoon, watching and learning from their every move. On the fourth they battle through another game, and on the fifth they fight tooth and nail and then.

Then they’re one of the top two teams in Japan.

Tobio can hardly _think_ when he walks onto the court beside Hinata and the rest of the team. Finals. At _Nationals_. It’s. It’s too much. _He_ feels sick to his stomach, but Hinata. Hinata’s just staring up at the sea of faces there to support them and _smiling_ like this is what he was made to do.

For a long minute, Tobio just stares down at Hinata--his captain--his most important person--his _best friend_ \--and tries to remember what it was like to be able to breathe. Because this. Hinata’s effervescent, radiating _joy_ is too much for Tobio to handle. It’s more than friendship. It’s more than volleyball. It’s more than _anything_. And then, just as quickly, his thoughts turn dark. Because he’d thought he’d be able to handle Hinata’s happiness when he got his wings back, but if it’s stronger even than _this_ …

Tobio sucks in a breath and looks away sharply. Now isn’t the time for this. Now is the time for volleyball. So he stares across the court at their faceless opponents and bows. He knows in his heart: Karasuno is going to win.

\----

Their opponents take the first set 26-28, but Hinata just grins when they take their break between sets. “We fight better when we have to fight from behind.” The whole team grins back, and they march onto the court with renewed vigor. Karasuno takes the second set 25-21 on a magnificent block by Tsukishima, and loses the second set 20-25.

The fourth set goes to deuce again, but Tobio feels Hinata’s unerring, almost unnerving calm seep into his skin, and they take that set 31-29.

Hinata looks around at the whole group, his eyes calm and certain. “We’re going to win,” he says, and he says it with such certainty that there can be no denying it. The whole team just nods back at him, equal parts solemnly still and vibrantly agile, ready for anything.

It happens on Karasuno’s match point. The rally’s been going for a solid half minute at this point, and Tobio can feel the whole team starting to wane. But then something in the air _shifts_ and Tobio feels himself stand a little straighter. The whole team stands a little taller, moves a little faster. They’re pushing pushing pushing through the pain, and suddenly Tobio knows that this is it. Ikeda makes a desperate receive, and Tobio feels it in his bones and his blood. In that instant it seems so fitting that it should happen on their match point. Because there it is--Hinata’s spark. It lights a fire in Tobio’s veins, and he doesn’t know what Hinata will do, doesn’t know what game he’s running, but Tobio can _feel_ his motion, his strength, his certainty, knows where he’ll be, and, with all the trust of three years at his side, sends Hinata the toss Tobio knows he wants.

When Hinata jumps, it’s perfection, and all Tobio can do is watch and admire him. His face is pure serenity, and Tobio knows that there’s no way anyone can stop him now.

The ball hits the ground with a satisfying _smack_ , and Tobio looks desperately at the referee and then.

Then they're the strongest team in Japan.

Hinata's screaming himself hoarse, and Tobio can't breathe with the way Ikeda's wrapped his arms around him. They won. They _won_. They won and all Tobio wants is--

Hinata finally turns to him, having run the gambit of their whole team, high fives and exuberant hugs, and now. Now he only has eyes for Tobio, and those eyes…. Those eyes are Tobio's _world_.

So he scoops Hinata up in his arms, laughing wildly as he spins his captain around. Hinata laughs just as loud, and then looks down at Tobio, his eyes sparkling, but serious. Tobio feels his heart stutter in his chest, because he knows that look. He's seen it on his own face a thousand times, and that… that can't be _possible_. He wants to keep holding Hinata aloft, preserve this moment in his mind forever, where he can hope and wonder but doesn't have to _know_ , but his arms are already shaking, and all he can do is start to lower Hinata to the ground, fear and apprehension curdling in his stomach until…

Until Hinata, feet on the ground, pulls Tobio the rest of the way down into a kiss. 

Tobio can feel his breath, frozen in his chest for an instant at the thought of the crowd and the cameras and the eyes of the nation on them. But the team is surrounding them, blocking them from view, like they saw this coming. Like they _expected_ it. Tobio gives himself half a second to be embarrassed about that before he's wrapping his arms around Hinata's waist and hauling him into a deeper kiss. Tobio hadn't realized how stiff and nervous Hinata was against him until he relaxes, his own arms tightening around Tobio's neck and his mouth falling open in supplication. Tobio wastes no time in responding, slipping his tongue past Hinata's lips and his hands beneath his jersey while the stadium and their team go on whooping and cheering around them.

When Tobio finally pulls back, breathless with joy, he only has eyes for Hinata, who's blushing bright enough to match his hair, but grinning wider than Tobio's ever seen. All Tobio wants is to dart in and kiss that smile from his lips, so he leans in to do just that. Hinata laughs as Tobio leans in, his whole body loose and relaxed in Tobio's arms, and for an instant, Tobio thinks that this is the happiest he's ever been.

In that second, Hinata goes completely stiff in his arms, and Tobio draws back, frowning. "Hina--" He stops short when he catches sight of Hinata's eyes, huge and dilated in his rapidly paling face. Tobio feels color drain from his own face, panic setting into his bones. "Hinata, what is it? What's wrong?"

"It… I… _hurts_ ," he whimpers, his whole body curling instinctively closer to Tobio.

Tobio wants nothing more than to hold onto Hinata until the pain fades, but if he's hurting this badly, there's no time. He pushes Hinata away, bending down to get a better look at him. "What hurts, Hinata?"

"I… everything. Everything hurts. I can't… I can't _breathe_ , Kageyama, I--"

Tobio tilts Hinata's head back, searching his eyes. "Where is it the worst?"

"My…" Hinata's eyes go, if possible, even wider. "Kageyama…"

"What is it?"

"It's… they're coming…."

"What's coming?"

"It's my back. They're… they're coming."

Tobio feels like his whole world's been rocked on its axis. "Your…?"

Hinata clenches his eyes shut and nods, tears leaking from beneath his eyelids.

Tobio wastes no time. He looks up, locking eyes with Tsukishima and pulling on every ounce of strength his vice-captain's mantle has endowed him with. "Clear me a path to the locker room." Tsukishima hesitates for a fraction of an instant, his eyes on where Hinata is shaking, curled up tight against Tobio. Tobio can feel the team starting to notice that something's wrong, and tightens his grip on Hinata, standing a little taller. "Now!"

Tsukishima jumps at the sharpness in his voice, but nods, turning and marching ahead of Tobio toward the locker room. Tobio scoops Hinata up in his arms, turning away from where Coach Ukai is shaking hands with the opposing team's coach and the team is starting to go from excited to concerned to follow Tsukishima toward the locker room.

"Kageyama," Hinata gasps, his voice tiny and shaking. "I… I can't…"

"Just hang on, idiot. It's gonna be okay. I promise." Hinata sobs, curling up even smaller. "Just breathe, Hinata. Just breathe and listen to my heartbeat."

Hinata leans in close, his ear pressed against Tobio's chest. He relaxes slightly into Tobio after a moment, though his body is still tense and tight. "It's beating really fast," he murmurs.

"Well, I did just play in the National High School Volleyball Championship match and then get kissed by the love of my life."

Hinata jerks back, almost setting Tobio off balance with the speed of the motion. "You love me?"

Tobio grins. "Course I do. Why else would I have spent the last year trying to get you your wings back?"

"I thought… I thought you knew how I felt and didn't feel the same way and were trying to let me down easy…"

Tobio chuckles, the severity of the moment briefly forgotten. "Nope. I'm just an idiot." Hinata laughs, then cringes, burying his face in Tobio's shoulder. "Almost there. I promise."

Tsukishima's holding the door to the locker room open when they get there, his forehead creased with worry. "Will he--"

"He'll be fine. I just need to get him straightened out and let his mom know what's going on. Everything's fine. Just… just keep the team out of here, okay?"

Tsukishima grimaces. "Easier said than done."

"Please, Tsukishima. I'm… I'm begging you. He won't want anyone to see him like this."

Tsukishima's eyes are wide and surprised, but he nods blankly at Tobio. Tobio gives him a tiny, grateful smile, and steps inside.

In the dim light of the locker room, everything is suddenly that much bigger and scarier. Tobio sets Hinata on one of the benches, urging him to look up at him. "Come on. You need to get your jersey off."

"I… why?"

"Because wings are about to force their way out of your back and the last thing you need is them to have to rip through your jersey too."

Hinata frowns. "How do you know?"

"I've done some research in the last year." He quirks a tiny, awkward smile. "Your family isn't the only one with this problem."

Hinata's eyes go wide. "You mean--?"

"There's other people with wings. Other people that have made it through this." Tobio pushes sweaty bangs from Hinata's eyes. "You're gonna be okay. I promise."

It's clear that Hinata has about a dozen more questions, but then his eyes clench shut at another wave of pain and Tobio doesn't have any more time to think. He pulls Hinata's jersey over his head just in time for Hinata to look up at him, eyes wide with dread.

Tobio hauls him bodily to the toilet where Hinata empties his stomach, his whole body shaking and shivering as he does. Tobio runs to his bag and grabs his cell phone and an extra bottle of water before rushing back to Hinata's side. Hinata is dry-heaving weakly, his whole face a twisted mess of pain. Tobio forces himself to look away from Hinata's face to check his back. His scars are an angry black, like they've been badly burned. Tobio winces; he'd expected this, but it's somehow all the more awful to see in person. He unscrews the cap to the water bottle and pours it over Hinata's back in an attempt to cool what he knows actually _are_ burns on his back.

Hinata screams.

Tobio winces at the sound and gets to his feet, having just barely made out the sound of the locker room door slamming open over the sound of Hinata's screams. "That'll be Coach Ukai," he says quietly as Hinata's screams quiet into whimpers. "I'm just gonna…" Hinata nods, his face tracked with tears, and Tobio's chest aches for him. "I'll be right back."

Tobio intercepts a livid Coach Ukai just past the second row of lockers. "The hell were you thinking, Kageyama, taking Hinata away from the court if he was injured this bad?"

"It's not what you think, Coach Ukai," Tobio says, and has to fight from flinching at the way Coach seems to grow another three inches with rage when Hinata lets out another scream.

"Then what the hell is it?"

Tobio shakes his head, grabbing his phone and dialing Hinata's mother before holding it out to Coach Ukai. "You'll have to ask his mom."

Coach Ukai looks fit to burst, but takes the phone. Tobio turns away, walking back over to where Hinata is shaking on his knees on the floor. He slips his fingers into the short hairs at the base of Hinata's neck and rubs gently at the tightness there.

Hinata chokes on a sob. "It hurts, Kageyama."

Tobio leans down, kissing the tears from Hinata's cheeks. "I know. But think of what you'll have when it's done."

Hinata shakes his head miserably. "I don't… I don't know if it's worth all this…."

Tobio immediately takes Hinata's face in his hands, forcing Hinata to look up at him. "It will be, Hinata. I swear."

Hinata searches his eyes for a long moment, before smiling softly and leaning in to kiss him. "Alright. If you say so." Then his face clenches with another wave of pain, and he jerks away from Tobio, dry heaving over the toilet.

Then his hands go tight on the porcelain, and Tobio knows what's coming. He drags Hinata away from the stall and into the middle of the room and watches in morbid horror as the scars on his back go from black to red to white and then, just as suddenly, back to red as the wings come exploding out of his back in a shower of blood.

They're _huge_ , and Tobio can't quite tell through the blood, but he thinks they're black. Strange, he thinks distantly, because the ones he'd had when he was small had been orange. But they're covered in blood, so really they just look like a slick, sickly mess. And Hinata's covered in the stuff too, his whole body drenched in blood, and, _god_ Tobio can hardly _think_ through the aching panic he can feel in his gut because for all that his research has suggested that the wounds will seal up just fine, he doesn't _know_ that they will; he'll have to go check on them, have to figure out what to do if they don't seal, have to--

It takes Tobio a solid fifteen seconds to realize Hinata isn't the only one screaming.

His jaw clacks audibly as he forces himself to stop, just in time for Coach Ukai to come running around the corner, Tobio's phone still pressed to his ear.

"Oh, mother _fuck_ ," Tobio hears, and then, "Yes. Yes, Hinata-san, I'll make sure he gets back safely. Yes. Yes. Thank you. I'm so sorry. Thank you." Then he's passing the phone off to Tobio and approaching a shaking Hinata, who seems to be struggling under the weight of his blood-soaked wings. "Hinata? Are you alright?"

Hinata looks up at Tobio, betrayed, and Tobio immediately gets to his feet, rushing to stand between Coach Ukai and Hinata. "Don't, Coach."

Coach stops short, looking between the two of them curiously. Than he straightens, nodding. "Alright. I'll back off if you want and go take care of damage control. But only if you're both sure that's what you want."

Tobio looks over his shoulder at Hinata, trying to convey with his eyes that he'll back Hinata's play one hundred percent. Hinata swallows, looking somehow even smaller than usual beneath his wings, then sits up a little taller, turning his gaze to Coach. "I'll have Kageyama come out and get you when we're ready."

Coach looks disappointed, but nods, turning to leave the locker room and, presumably, placate the team. Tobio looks away from him and back toward Hinata. He takes in the room with a sudden rolling sensation in his stomach; Hinata isn't the only thing covered in blood. The floor around Hinata is absolutely drenched with it, and the walls and mirrors behind him aren't much better off. With a sick swallow, Tobio crosses to kneel in front of Hinata, ignoring the way his shorts are soaked in seconds. "Hinata?" he asks softly.

Hinata looks up at him, eyes more pupil than anything else, and Tobio has to swallow down the rising bile. "Kageyama…" he says, voice a little dazed.

"Yeah. It's me. We should… we should get you cleaned up."

Hinata blinks slowly, then nods. Tobio helps him to his feet, both of them struggling to stay upright in the slick blood. Neither of them bother to strip before they step into the showers; their clothes are absolutely covered in blood, and the sooner they get them rinsed, the better. Tobio starts by cleaning Hinata's face and chest, before easing him out of the spray and turning him around.

"We don't want to get them too much wetter, or we may not be able to get them dry before we have to get on the bus back home," he says gently. Hinata nods, and lets Tobio pour handfuls of water over the sections where the blood seems to be the worst, and then work his fingers carefully through the feathers. After a few long minutes, Tobio presses his hand to the center of Hinata's back. "Go air dry them for a bit. I'm gonna rinse off and then start on cleaning up." Hinata nods again and then looks away, like he's trying not to think about the mess they left in the rest of the locker room.

Tobio sighs, rinsing off quickly and then leaving his uniform to soak under the spray of the shower. He walks over to his bag, grabbing a towel and drying off perfunctorily before steeling himself and heading back to the where worst of the blood is.

The first thing he does is walk over to the mirrors, soaking a corner of the towel and making quick work of wiping them down. He does the walls around the mirrors next, and checks the rest of the walls before turning to the floor.

It's a lot of blood. An almost _frightening_ amount of blood. The bile rises in his throat again, but he forces the nausea down, and, after a moment of contemplation, just drops the towel on the floor, letting it soak up as much of the blood as it can. Then he starts scrubbing at the rest of it until the towel is completely red. He swallows, trying not to think about how all of this blood came from _inside Hinata_ , but the thought rises, unbidden, and he sets to scrubbing harder at the spot on the floor.

A pair of hands closes over his, and he stills, looking up at Hinata. His face is smooth again, unlined with pain or worry, and surrounded by his wings, huge and black and beautiful. "I'm alright, Kageyama," he says, reading Tobio as perfectly as he always does. "I'm alright."

Kageyama drops the towel, raising up to wrap bloodstained hands around Hinata's neck. He doesn't say anything, and neither does Hinata, content to just hold Tobio and comfort him.

In the end, the two of them get the locker room more or less back to working order, though the towel they've used is completely soaked from the number of times they've had to rinse the blood out of it, and they both need to rinse off again. Tobio had made Hinata stay out of the worst of the blood, so he only needs to rinse his feet off, but Tobio's knees and shins are covered in the stuff.

By the time they're all cleaned up, it's creeping up on the time that should mark the start of the presentation of awards. They sneak a look at each other, and come to the silent decision to slip into their warm up clothes and throw their jackets on over and head on out to meet the team.

This plan is met with a significant ripple when Hinata struggles to get his wings under the jacket.

"I used to be able to fold them up just fine," he grumbles as he fights with the jacket. Tobio just smiles at him affectionately for the first three minutes of this, before he takes pity on Hinata and crosses over to help him fold them up against his back, and then settles the jacket over his shoulders. When he crosses back in front of Hinata, he's blushing. "Thanks," he says softly, and the only way Tobio can think to respond is to lean over and press a kiss to his lips. Which, he realizes with a start, he's allowed to do now, so he does, kissing Hinata warm and deep. Hinata pulls back after a moment, his face flushed. "I, uh." He swallows, looking sheepish. "I don't know how to keep them in check yet, so--"

Tobio jerks back, his own face flushing at the implication. "Oh! Oh, yeah, I. Sure. Gotcha." He rubs at the back of his head and nods, feeling overcome with awkwardness.

Hinata chuckles, reaching out and grabbing Tobio's hand. "Come on. We have a team to lead."

Tobio can only smile back, lacing his fingers through Hinata's. Something's changed between them, that's for certain, but for the first time in a year, Tobio feels like he's truly succeeded at being Hinata's best friend. That, almost as much as the wings, makes him certain that, whatever it is that's changed between them, they're going to be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Hinata's wings are forced out of his back, ripping the skin and causing a moderate amount of blood loss that is described in a graphic way.
> 
> As in the first fic, the title comes from the Japanese word _tobu_ which can mean "to fly" or "to jump." Conjugated as _tobaseru_ , it means "to allow one to fly/jump." _Tsubasa_ is the Japanese word for wings, so the title is literally "The Wings that Allow me to Fly," but I preferred the double meaning of _tobu_ to the strict English translation.
> 
> I'm not one hundred percent satisfied with the ending, but I don't have a full-fledged beta in Haikyuu!! fandom yet, so it'll have to do for now. If you or someone you know is interested in being a beta for future Haikyuu!! fic for me, please feel free to let me know, as I have a longer one in the works right now for which I would desperately love a beta.
> 
> [Come hang out with me on tumblr!](http://hollyandvice.tumblr.com)


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